The rose of High-Rock
by Laena16
Summary: This is what arrived at Ulfric Stormcloak after the end of the civil war and its victory on the Imperials..


~Hello everyone! :3

**I would like to specify some little things before you began to read:**

1_. English is not my mother tongue. I am French, but I adore English and this is why I wanted to write this text in English_

2._ I am not absolutely bilingual. If you see enormous faults, do not hesitate to indicate them to me!_

**After this introduction, I hope that you will be indulgent toward me ^^.**

**Disclaimer: Ulfric Stormcloak belongs to Bethesda Softworks, Isabel belongs to .. me :D.**

* * *

The city of Solitude was fulfill of happy noises. All of the villagers were outside to celebrate King Olaf's burning's festival. The city was illuminated with thousands of candles ; it looked like a waking dream. All the people were dancing and singing together. The members of the Bards College were playing their favorite songs. Even the guards had left their posts to join the popular jubilation. But there was only one man that wasn't participating to the festivities.

Ulfric Stormcloak looked through the open window the lightened city. He was dying to join his people, but his heart of thoughtful husband commanded him to stay in the room. He turned around and looked with compassion at the woman lengthened in the big sculptured bed.

* * *

Isabel had been Ulfric's wife for years. She was the result of an alliance between the free region of Skyrim and High-Rock, after Ulfric wiped the Empire out of Skyrim. Isabel was the daughter of the king of High-Rock, and she had to bring to king the insurance to see the armed forces of Skyrim becoming allied to those of High Rock. The first time Ulfric saw Isabel when the delegation brought her for the wedding, he thought that he would never get used to her. Instead of the big and beautiful blonde whom Ulfric would have imagined to marry, he had seen a little Breton girl with long red hair and dark green eyes. She was not ugly for the common run of people, but for Ulfric she represented all that he hated, to begin with this marriage of convenience. He had such an expression of disgust as, when their two looks met, the young woman lowered the head by blushing.

The parents of Isabel had left one week to their daughter to get to know her future husband, as it was the custom in High Rock. During one week, she had followed Ulfric in all of his travels. And, on a Turdas day, as she sat down on a chair in the Blue Palace, Ulfric turned to her :

« Listen, I think that we are both enough clever and responsible, then I would get straight to the point. I think that you've noticed that I was not very friendly to you. It's for a simple reason, I-

Isabel got up, a small smile on the lips, and silenced him with her derisive look.

- I understand very well that I'm not the woman you've always dreamed about, she says. I am not those invicibles warriors who populate your legends. I am simply.. me, she ended with a smile of excuse. I'm not the prettiest, or the cleverest but..

- It's not about that, he cut her with a little smile. I.. By the Gods, why is it so hard ?

- You can tell me with no fear... Ulfric, she said, calling him by his first name for the first time.

- Well.. I think I can, he says in sitting down in front of her. I'm.. afraid of where this thing is going to lead us, he started.

- This thing ? What do you mean ? Asked Isabel.

- Our marriage.. You know, my father, the Great Bear of Eastmarch, has done a marriage of convenience too, and.. that didn't well end.

- How did it end ? Isabel said in a whisper.

- My mother left the castle when I was 10, right before I started learning the Voice with the Greybeards. She and my father were too different, they were arguing everyday. She told me she'll be back.. and she hadn't. My father hunted her down like a beast. She betrayed me, he said, she must pay for it. I went to High-Hrothgar two days after my mother left, and when I came back in Windhelm, after the Great War, after my father's death, everyone in the city has told me the truth. She had never betrayed my father, he did. He was violent with her, that's why she left. And he killed her on the road to Shor's Stone, by his guards.

- I'm sorry to hear that, Ulfric, Isabel said, taking Ulfric's hand in hers.

- I don't want our relationship to end like that.. Isabel. I promise I will be more friendly, if you forgive me for my unbearable behavior..

- It's okay Ulfric, you had your reasons, she said while she got up. »

Ulfric got up too and they looked at each other lovingly. Ulfric's confidence was the first sign of agreement he had showed to her. After a long silence, he embraced her and kissed her delicately, sealing their good agreement for the years which would follow.

After that, the relation between the young lovebirds evolved very positively. They were really in love, so in love that their entourage did not understand this rough change of behavior. The wedding took place magnificently well. The guests came from all of Skyrim to attend the event, and the chapel of Solitude seemed too small to welcome everybody. Everybody had fun, especially the newlyweds, locked into a bubble of happiness. Ulfric invited several times his wife to dance, him who had never made a single dance step of his life. The marriage continued till late in the night, and when the newlyweds returned to the palace, the moon was already high in the sky. Ulfric and Isabel ended up alone in the royal chamber of the palace without knowing what to do. Ulfric approached Isabel, raised her in his arms, and put down her delicately on the bed. The only things which leaked out of this wedding night were that the young queen had a big smile and a dreamy air the next day.

During the months which followed, Ulfric began the reconstruction of Bordeciel, welcoming the representatives of all the holds, from the Reach to the Rift, whereas his wife took care of Solitude and all the internal problems in the châtellerie of Haafingar. The life was beautiful, and in spite of some bandits' small attacks here or there, Bordeciel was reborn on the ashes of the civil war.

But these happy days had to have the end. No on the general plan of Bordeciel, but inside the city of Solitude. Ulfric, his wife and some noble persons had left going hunting in the countryside near Solitude, on the last day of Second Seed. Isabel had fired an arrow at an enormous deer and had dashed in its pursuit. The animal, forced against a wall, had returned and had charged Isabel, who did not have been able to evade the antlers of the animal. She had found herself face downwards, some blood passing by slowly of her stomach. Ulfric had arrived at this moment and had returned his wife to the castle as quickly as possible. The doctors rushed at the bedside of the young woman. They looked after the gravest wounds, but they declared that a severe case of spasmophilia had declared itself at Isabel's, and that none of them was capable of looking after it. Ulfric flew into a rage, but that changed nothing. Isabel was going to decay day after day and nobody could anything against that. Since then, Ulfric watched his wife day after day, night after night, in the hope of an improvement which did not come.

* * *

Ulfric went out of his thoughts and approached the bed of his wife. She smiles to him weakly, her hair were scattered on the pillow as a fire. He sat down on the edge of blankets and took her hand.

" How do you feel my love? Does your remedy begin to make effect?

- No, she answered weakly. If there was a single remedy in this world which was effective, they would have already found it.

- Do not say that, my heart, there is still some hope!

- No, she answered, shaking the head. I know how to recognize a lost cause and mine is for a very long time.

- Well, at least we are together, smiles Ulfric. And we shall find ourselves in Sovngarde.

Ulfric got ready to smile, but he congealed by seeing tears flowing on the cheeks of his wife. She was breathing with difficulty and her cheeks were more pale than ever.

- What do you have, love ? What's wrong ? Asked Ulfric, worried.

- Ul-Ulfric.., she said with difficulty, What am I ?

- What? Repeated Ulfric without understanding.

- What. Am. I, said again Isabel.

- You're my wife, Isabel.. no doubt about that !

- No, you don't understand me.. What am I ? Where am I from ?

- You're from High-Rock, you're a Breton.., said Ulfric.

- Exactly! Isabel exclaimed by crying even more.

- And ? What's wrong with that, my love ? Asked with concern Ulfric.

- I-I can't.., started Isabel.

- You can't..

I can't go to Sovngarde, Ulfric.. »

Ulfric opened the mouth, shocked. All his life, he had dreamed about the big plains of Sovngarde. And if his wife was deprived of it, he did not know how he was going to survive in front of the eternity of the Pantheon of Shor. He got up, by-passed the bed and lengthened next to Isabel, embracing her. For the first time since the death of his mother, Ulfric began crying whereas Aetherius welcomed the soul of his wife And below, at the heart of the city, the villagers were burning the effigy of king Olaf, without suspecting that they had just lost their queen..


End file.
